What's New

The Grand Boulevard Initiative, in collaboration with the City of Palo Alto and the City of Redwood City, is currently working on a streetscape improvement project that will facilitate the design of improvements on El Camino Real in Redwood City and Palo Alto to improve safety and accessibility for all roadway users. Funded through a Caltrans Sustainable Transportation Planning grant and local match, the project will improve portions of El Camino Real between Maple Street and State Route 84/Charter Street in Redwood City and Stanford Avenue to Lambert Avenue in Palo Alto.

The areas in Redwood City and Palo Alto were chosen based on their high opportunity to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety and access on El Camino Real. The study will identify the challenges, needs, and opportunities for all modes of transportation and develop improvements to make the areas more livable for residents.

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Public outreach for the study segment in Palo Alto will begin in January 2018 with the first of at least three opportunities to provide input. For information on upcoming workshops in Palo Alto or to participate in the interactive online survey visit the Grand Boulevard Palo Alto webpage here.

The Grand Boulevard Initiative Partner Sessions were a series of interactive meetings to engage local representatives and discuss emerging opportunities to make El Camino Real a more urban, pedestrian-friendly, transit-oriented corridor for residents to live, work, shop and play. Read more about the sessions and view the session documents here.

Six Peninsula cities recently received top honors for development projects and plans in the El Camino Real corridor that exemplifies the Grand Boulevard Initiative (GBI) Guiding Principles. This year, two awards were granted – a 2016 Grand Boulevard Initiative Award and 10-Year Legacy Award, which commemorates a previously awarded project as an exemplary legacy project of the 10 years of the Grand Boulevard Initiative.

At an awards ceremony and special luncheon held last week sponsored by San Mateo County Economic Development Association (SAMCEDA) and Dostart Development Company, LLC, GBI’s Task Force selected the following cities for the 2016 Grand Boulevard Initiative Award:

A total of 15 projects were nominated for the 2016 Grand Boulevard Initiative Awards and 17 projects nominated for the 10-Year Legacy Awards, for a total of 32 projects nominated and scored. Members scored each of the nominated projects based upon how well each project met the 10 Grand Boulevard Guiding Principles.

The Grand Boulevard Initiative received a state grant of nearly $350,000 to design improvements on El Camino Real in Redwood City and Palo Alto to improve safety and accessibility for all roadway users. The grant, awarded by Caltrans as part of its Sustainable Transportation Planning program, will improve portions of El Camino Real near the downtown areas of Redwood City and Palo Alto. Combined with a local funding contribution, the total improvement investments will be $394,300.

The improvements will include traffic calming measures, upgrades to pedestrian facilities, considerations for bicycles, and enhanced streetscape designs to make the area more livable for residents. The areas in Redwood City and Palo Alto were chosen based on their high opportunity to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety and access on El Camino Real. With the improvements, the Grand Boulevard Initiative hopes to make the areas more socially and economically connected with their surrounding communities.

Conceptual design for the improvement projects will begin in late 2016.

Grand Boulevard Initiative invites its member agencies to submit nominations for the fourth round of Grand Boulevard Awards for projects and plans that embody the 10 Guiding Principles and Grand Boulevard Initiative Vision of creating people friendly places from Daly City to San Jose.

Eligible projects must be located within a half-mile of El Camino Real/Mission St/The Alameda (State Route 82) in San Mateo or Santa Clara Counties between northern Daly City and San Jose at Diridon Station.

There are three different Award categories. A project or plan will be evaluated based on its level of compliance with the 10 Guiding Principles.

The Grand Boulevard Initiative was featured at the Silicon Valley Business Journal's "The Business of Commercial Real Estate" forum on April 14, 2016. The panel discussed the past, present, and future of the critical El Camino Real regional link and examined the possibilities and challenges it faces.